Lake County Republican Party Chairman and county councilman Randy Niemeyer raised concerns Tuesday about Democratic employees setting up for the party’s caucus during work hours and paying student election workers for training they didn’t attend.

Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Director Michelle Fajman said the set-up for the caucus took place over the weekend, and that student election workers have a different training sign-in and payment process compared to other election workers.

Niemeyer, R-Cedar Lake, said during the council’s Tuesday meeting five or six Democratic employees spent three hours setting up for the county Democratic Party caucus, which was held Saturday, March 1, at the Lake County Government Center auditorium, during work hours Friday, February 28.

The county’s employee handbook says “that activity is deemed improper,” Niemeyer said, so he’d like to look into why the employees set up the caucus during work hours, what has been done to correct the action, and who paid for the workers’ time.

“That is not allowed to happen on government time even if there is someone else paying for it,” Niemeyer said. “I don’t think it’s ever good practice for government workers to be participating in political work during their work hours.”

Lake County has a history of employees doing political work in the office, Niemeyer said, like former Lake County Surveyor George Van Til who was convicted in federal court for using county resources to run his campaign.

“We’ve had situations here in the past where people have faced legal consequences for those sorts of things, and I sure as heck don’t want to see another black eye on Lake County.”

Employees did not spend three hours setting up for the caucus during business hours. The voting machines and tables were delivered that Friday, Fajman said, but all set up was done Saturday morning.

Fajman said some employees could’ve walked into the auditorium to see if the equipment was in the room ready to be set up the next day. Employees like to walk the government campus during their breaks, so it’s possible some employees could’ve walked by the auditorium, she said, but no set-up was done.

During the May special Crown Point and Hobart school referendum elections, Niemeyer said he was concerned about inspectors and students being paid for training, which they have to attend by law, but records indicate that some didn’t receive training.

“We’ve got some discrepancies there in processes and systems that need to be looked into,” Niemeyer said.

Fajman said that special elections are paid for by the entity holding the election, so all payments of election workers would be paid for by the school districts. Initially, the money comes out of the county’s general fund, and then the schools reimburse the county for the elections.

Under Indiana law, clerks and judges can complete election training online or in person, Fajman said. Inspectors have to do training in person, she said.

Further, Indiana law dictates that students have to attend training, Fajman said, so they can pick in person or online.

Fajman said when election workers go to training, they show their driver’s license and check in on a poll pad against voter registration data.

Because some students aren’t old enough to vote yet, Fajman said they are checked in manually. To get paid, students on Election Day sign a pay claim and mark on the claim that they attend training.

Inspectors could have a discrepancy in training attendance because there could be situations where an inspector had to back out of working the election – but remains on the record – and another inspector fills in, Fajman said.

The election office has been working toward coming up with a system to better track attendance and payments, Fajman said, and hopes to launch it by the next general election.

“Right now, there’s no foolproof method that we have, but we’re looking into it right now,” Fajman said.

Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, said he supports Niemeyer raising questions about what occurred in the election office and during the special election. But there’s “agencies out there to police that,” Bilski said.

Bilski said the situations should be looked into and see what the investigations find.

Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said since Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, was in the audience of the meeting, maybe the legislature could look into election training criteria to make it more clear who can and can’t do which type of training.

akukulka@post-trib.com